Accidental find unearths Stone Age settlement beneath the North Sea

Accidental find unearths Stone Age settlement beneath the North Seatrefwoorden: Schotland - Tyne - steentijd - nederzetting - onderwaterarcheologieA team of marine archaeologists has chanced upon an undersea settlement that could be 10,000 years old. They found what is believed to be the country’s second submerged Stone Age development while on a practice dive in the North Sea near the mouth of the Tyne. Another, slightly more recent site, still from the Mesolithic period, was found on the seabed nearby. Dr Penny Spikins, of Newcastle University, the leader of the multinational research team behind the Submerged Prehistoric Landscapes Project, made the initial discovery. She said: "I was learning to scuba dive and was in the middle of a training session when I noticed lots of pieces of flint beneath me on the sea bed. "To the average person they would seem like ordinary stones you would find on the beach, but to a specialist they were something very exciting indeed."